Untold pre-WWII stories surface

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Leo Saito of Oakland, Calif. holds a picture of his family as he poses for a portrait in his home, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008. Saito escaped being interned to a "relocation center" for Japanese Americans during World War II because he was serving in the U.S. military, but his family was not so lucky: his mother and father lost their business and their home when the government forced them to move to a camp in Utah. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)

Leo Saito, his wife, Margaret Shizuko Saito, and their child in their West Oakland home in 1946. World War II ruptured the lives of many Japanese Americans, who were forced to live behind barbed wired in internment camps. Leo's family was interned at Topaz,UT; he was an army medic. Photo courtesy Leo Saito.(Photo courtesy Leo Saito.)

Leo Saito (bottom right) and his family sit for a photo by their West Oakland home on Market Street, circa 1927. Saito's family was internedduring WWII. His parents operated a shoe repair shop and cleaners in East Oakland prior to the war. (Photo courtesy Leo Saito.)

Leo Saito of Oakland, Calif. holds a book on the history of Oakland that contains a picture of his marriage to his wife Margaret at "relocation center" for Japanese Americans during World War II. Saito escaped being sent to the camp because he was serving in the U.S. military, but his family was not so lucky: his mother and father lost their business and their home when the government forced them to move to a camp in Utah. Seen Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)

OAKLAND — Sixty-six years ago Tuesday, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing some 120,000 Japanese into internment camps throughout the West.

Thriving communities were abandoned as the Japanese were forced to leave their homes and businesses.

Today, a group is hoping to recapture the stories of the pre-war Japanese and the communities they left behind.

“Where were California’s Japantowns and what was left of them?” asks Donna Graves, project director of Preserving California’s Japantowns, which focuses on 43 locations throughout the state, from Marysville to El Centro, where Japanese lived before the war.

While historic Japantowns exist today in Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco, other cities, including Oakland, were also home to vibrant Japanese-American populations before thewar.

The project found more than 400 Japanese-owned businesses, places of worship and other sites in Oakland — the largest number of all the places documented. More than 100 of those buildings remain throughout Oakland today.

Project researchers found that the Japanese businesses were not concentrated in a traditional “Japantown,” but spread throughout the city. Many Japanese Americans lived in West Oakland.

Oakland’s pre-war population of Japanese Americans was about 1,800, said Graves, who was also project director for Richmond’s Rosie the Riveter Memorial.

Using 1941 directories published by two Japanese newspapers, researchers found Japanese-owned nurseries, churches, corner groceries, shoe repair shops and more in Oakland.

Japanese Americans were known for their nurseries growing cut flowers.

“Oakland is really the birthplace of Japanese American flower-growing, which was huge around the Bay Area,” Graves said.

Executive Order 9066, signed on Feb. 19, 1942, forced the evacuation of people of Japanese ancestry — though more than half were citizens — to 10 “relocation” centers. Many had to give up their homes and businesses. Though commonly known as “internment camps,” some also refer to the centers as concentration camps.

“You put all your money into a business and you lose everything,” said Leo Saito, 92, of Oakland, whose parents ran a shoe repair shop and cleaners prior to World War II. “It’s a disaster, and you’re stuck in one of these camps.”

Preserving California’s Japantowns is also collecting oral histories, such as Saito’s. The longtime Oakland resident and retired dentist is featured in a video clip about the project, available at http://www.californiajapantowns.org.

The project is sponsored by the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council and funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

The project recently gained traction in Berkeley when the City Council issued a proclamation for the group’s work. The city planning staff will also take into consideration the sites documented by the project before issuing an alteration or demolition permit on a building, said Terry Blount, senior planner and secretary to the Landmarks Preservation Commission of Berkeley.

Graves said she hopes the project spreads awareness of the sites and their rich, but hidden, histories.

The project’s goal is to document, for the first time, these “Japantowns” and help others understand the community better. Graves also hopes some historic sites can be preserved, interpreted or used for story gathering.

“We wouldn’t have to save every single site,” she said.

A few pre-war institutions still exist today, such as the Buddhist Church of Oakland in Chinatown. The temple — then located at 6th and Alice streets — served as storage during the war. People were only able to take with them what they could carry, so churches and temples often served as storage space during — and as temporary housing after — the war.

When Interstate 880 was being built in the’50s and as the congregation grew, the church moved to its current location at 6th and Jackson streets.